NEWS

I. WarraqThe call by a prominent Moroccan preacher to mark a national Chastity Day has stirred controversy in Morocco with some advocating the promotion of chastity, others regarding the initiative as an insult to Moroccans and others saying that the call is a dangerous warning of how out of touch with young people some of the older generation are. Ibn Warraq reports from Casablanca

Adria LawrenceOn February 20, 2011, Moroccan youth activists, inspired by protesters in Tunisia and Egypt, staged major demonstrations for democratic reform and "freedom and dignity for all Moroccans." Avoiding the indecision and dramatic scenes of repression seen in other Arab capitals, Morocco's King Mohammed VI responded rapidly with a televised address that acknowledged the protesters' grievances and promised major constitutional reforms, including a stronger parliament, free and fair elections, and the protection of human rights.

Serhua Toh
While it is unusual to find more than a cursory description of the fine street food of the Fez Medina, Serhua has done such a wonderful job - you can almost taste the food! What is amazing about Serhua's blog is that as a 23 year old student she has managed to trave the world doing what she likes most... as she says "It just dawned on me one day that this is what I would love to do.

Arturo Garcia
Bouhmouch, a student majoring in both Television, Film and New Media and International Security and Conflict Resolution, returned to his home in Morocco last summer where he collected footage for his project. Bouhmouch’s film, he says, "chronicles the movement and the tactics used against it by the regime".

Washington / Morocco Board News- The Moroccan telephone operator, Maroc Telecom, has blocked access to several sites that provide free VoIP telephone service to its users.
The ban has affected the Skype service that is used by most Moroccans to call their friends, relatives and customers overseas.

An illegal immigrant man from morocco was arrested “in the area” of the U.S. Capitol. He was suspected of planning a suicide attack on the complex had been under FBI surveillance before Friday's botched attempt.
“At no time was the public or congressional community in any danger,” read a statement from the Capitol Police, which said that the Capitol force was “intimately involved” in the investigation.

A morocco court sentenced a protester last Monday to a term of three years in jail. Abdessamad Hidour, an activist with the Feb 20th youth protest movement was convicted for "attacking the sacred values ​​of the nation". The activist had appeared on a video posted on Youtube accusing the king of dictatorship and corruption. The qualifiers used, during his speech, in front of street protesters, were offensive and derogatory to the person of the king.

Recent events underscore the reality that stability in Morocco’s neighborhood cannot be taken for granted. The implications of protracted instability in Morocco’s near abroad — the Maghreb and West Africa — would be substantial, adding to the opportunity costs of poor integration in the region, and strengthening the logic of an Atlantic vision. While continuing to pursue Maghreb integration, Morocco will also explore larger geometries in its international policy and economic development.

Rhazoui Zineb, a Moroccan reporter, a founder of MALI and a member of feb-20 youth Movement protest group, gave an interview during a conference in Barcelona organized by the European Foundation for Mediterranean (IEMED) and the Foundation Berthelsmann. She was critical of the current system of governance in Morocco.
She spoke (in french) on Morocco's system of government, on the latest elections that brought the Islamists of the PJD to government and on the prospects of democracy in the country.She currently resides in Slovenia following her difficulties with Moroccan authorities.

The Berber flag represents the pre-Islamic indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. In pre-Islamic times, there were Christian, Jewish, and polytheist Berbers. Most present-day Berbers are Muslims.

Bruce Maddy-Weitzman
In recent years, small groups of Moroccan Berber activists, particularly younger people, have challenged the enforced silence regarding Israel, expressing an interest in both the state of Israel and Jewish history, including the Holocaust. They even linked this interest to the alleged historic connections between Jews and Berbers in ancient times, including the initial resistance to Arab conquerors by the Kahina, a supposedly Jewish-Berber queen, and the multilayered, more recent relations existing until the mass departure of Jews for Israel in the 1950s and 1960s from Berber villages and towns.

Aziz EL Gouzouli“Profound local autonomy to Sahara issue at full recognition of Morocco’s territorial integrity is the only realistic solution to the three-decade long conflict and humanitarian crisis in Tindouf camps”, described a letter sent in 2007 by 173 members of the US Congress urging the former president George W. Bush to embrace this promising Moroccan initiative.

Jonathan WaltersIn the 1930s, in the Great Depression, international oil companies were drawn to the newly-formed state of Saudi Arabia, where oil had been discovered. At first, companies were reluctant to go to a faraway desert kingdom, with little infrastructure, no modern institutions, and few people with technical education. But the resource looked rich, so importing equipment and engineers, the companies took the plunge. The rest, as they say, is history. Saudi Arabia, and much of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), became the preeminent global supplier of oil.

It seems that there will be a before-and-after October 2011 in the relations between Mali and the Western Sahara Separatists Polisario Front. The Malian government is increasingly annoyed by the intrusions of the Polisario in its territory and the involvement of its militia in the kidnapping of several Europeans over the past two months.

a Western Sahara Separatist polisario Front confidential document revealed the difficulties polisario is facing within its own camps located in SouthWestern Algeria.

The document revealed the difficulty polisario is facing within the camps following demonstrations of the refugees to oust Polisario president-for-life Mohamed Abdelaziz. The document that was circulated by the polisario’s “defense ministry”, headed by Muhammad Wali Oekaki, gave instructions to all those responsible to supervise the elections to coerce participants to vote for Mohammed Abdelaziz, to intimidate, and to use all means available to crush his opponents in order to keep the same ruling leadership that has been in power for over 35 years.

Armed men from the Western Sahara Separatists Polisario Front killed a man and abducted three others in northern Mali, local officials said Thursday.
A Malian security official told AFP that the man was killed “in a vendetta on Malian territory by Polisario forces,” identifying the victim as Mohamed Yeyia Ould Hamed, aka ‘Double Head’.
The official said Polisario was claiming to exercise its right of pursuit to catch gunmen linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). But the official argued the killing was in fact the result of a vendetta between rival smugglers.

The french weekly "le canard Enchaine" revealed in its latest edition that morocco has made a purchase of a software that can track the Internet content of the entire country.
According to the weekly, the company Amesys, which is part the French conglomerate Bull, has been awarded a $2 million contract for the supply of computers, hard disk storage and the installation of the spy software "Eagle".

DAVID MAINELooking for “authentic” world music? You won’t get much more down-to-earth than Imanaren, a group of Amazigh musicians from the south of Morocco whose debut record was self-released on a limited scale within the country before being re-released by the Dutty Artz label. According to the label’s Web site, band leader Hassan Wargui “isn’t allowed to play music in the house, so we recorded [some music videos] with his local friends and fellow musicians in a natural amphitheatre carved out by a waterfall in a dry gorge.” Traditional musicians relegated to outdoors practice by unimpressed family patriarchs? Now that’s authentic.